Abstract
As urbanization advances, there occurs overwhelming material abundance. Correspondingly, people have growing aesthetical requirements and pay more attention to the beauty of urban details. As a medium conveying a city’s information to the outside world in China, the outdoor signboard is one of the elements affecting urban images and plays a vital role in displaying a city’s cultural, regional, and spiritual characteristics. It reflects a city’s image directly, which determines people’s first impression of the city. Also, it is a vital component of business facilities, profoundly influencing people’s consumption experience and perception of the urban environment. However,most of signboards are too many and too mussy to harmonious in Chinese various streets.Aout Chinese outdoor signboard at present,the strange color,unshaped form,poor material and jagged size even influncing the light of architectures have both been destroying cityscapes .Therefore, the number of signboard reconstruction projects has been rising in recent years, attracting growing attention and heated discussions from the public. Although exquisitely designed signboards are more aesthetical than previous dirty, disorderly, and unattractive ones, the replacement has triggered widespread criticisms. Thus it can be seen that the setting and reconstruction of outdoor signboards in many Chinese urban streets face many problems. It is urgent to select readable and visualized outdoor signboards and implement precision management and control. Besides, designers should design outdoor signboards according to feasible principles and assist their application with professional scientific and research achievements. This paper studies the formulation of technical specifications for outdoor signboards based on iconography, aiming to lay a theoretical foundation for subsequent studies. Besides, it summarizes principles and methods for designing outdoor signboards and proposes the theoretical basis of designs. Horizontally, it analyzes the differences between different countries and regions in design principles for outdoor signboards. Vertically, it studies how the design aesthetics of outdoor signboards take place throughout history. These analyses help with applying new forms, techniques, and technology that occur in modern times to designing outdoor signboards. Afterward, the paper horizontally analyzes the control measures and setting guidelines on outdoor signboards at home and abroad, summarizes notable cases of outdoor overseas signboards, and explores its regional and diversified design methods. Lastly, it collects domestic cases of reconstructing outdoor signboards that meet modern aesthetical requirements, analyzes outstanding cases for combining domestic outdoor signboards and the construction environment, and summarizes referential designing strategies and practical technology. Firstly, information is collected through on-site surveys, comparative studies, and literature reviews. Next, diverse streets are analyzed from multiple perspectives, including the street’s style positioning, the categories of roads, the analysis of architectural styles, and the selection of business images. Then, all factors are studied on three iconographical levels to propose principles and methods for designing outdoor signboards. Meanwhile, the paper analyzes the aesthetical laws and values of outdoor signboards to lay a practical theoretical foundation for designing and reconstructing signboards in reality. This research studies existing outdoor signboards in Songjiang District, Shanghai, and proposes reasonable principles and methods for reconstruction designs. Then,research would analyze practical cases of reconstructing outdoor signboards in Songjiang District, Shanghai, based on the iconographical methods, status quo, and planning of outdoor signboards at home and abroad. It aims to probe into the relations between iconography and outdoor signboard designs and summarize problems in the overall urban image, street characteristics, architectural styles, and individual merchants’ images. Then it proposes reconstruction measures and design standards based on such findings. Lastly, the paper summarizes technological paths for designing outdoor signboards, whose overall positioning and architectural image are consistent with merchants’ images. Keywords: iconography, planning study; aesthetical value; outdoor signboard design
